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Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

Good food for thought. Thanks Jun.

Since you said personally I had to say not very strong. I appreciate Morihei Ueshiba's gift to the world so much. We have a direct lineage to him too and I am grateful for that and for my own path that I travel.

Besides people that are alive I only feel a strong personal connection to my parents and maternal grandparents who have passed.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

A strong connection to someone I never knew personally, is a fantasy at best. That is not to say that I don't feel connected to his mission; I do, and have felt it an honor to be in the role of an aikido missionary. I hope this poll will give everyone good reflections.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

Since you said personally, I said Not very strong.

Sure my lineage is very direct but what has that got anything to with anything personally.

There are a lot of people I admire much more than him. Not just who they were and what they said, but by their actions.
I think too many people in this art romanticize about him way too much. The more I have learned over the years the more disenchanted I grow with him. I think Stanely Pranin was right when he said that modern aikido in various forms has more to do with how it grew up and was shaped by his students internationally after the war when he was essentially retired not withstanding all the posturing by Iwama folk.

After watching Ken Burn's documentary "The War" the last few weeks, which depicts my Dad's generation (he fought in the Pacific), it was chance again to think about all I have learned.

What would aikido be today without Japan's defeat being a complete and unconditional surrender? A society so thoroughly drenched in militarism. That documentary was perhaps untintentionally the most startling poweful arguement for the use of the atomic bomb. Granted, maybe the only time in history.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

Quote:

Mark Uttech wrote:

A strong connection to someone I never knew personally, is a fantasy at best. That is not to say that I don't feel connected to his mission; I do, and have felt it an honor to be in the role of an aikido missionary. I hope this poll will give everyone good reflections.

In gassho

Mark

Yes, but W.W.O.S.D.? (What Would O Sensei Do?)

Seriously, I concur with Mark. I never met the man, but I feel VERY connected to his legacy. I don't know how/if I'll answer this one.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

What does this have to do with lineage? Anybody ever played the game "Telephone" or one of it's variations, where a statement gets whispered through a chain of people? The more people are in the chain, the better odds that one of them will convey the message incorrectly. A subtle miscommunication in the beginning leads to completely incoherent conclusion later on. So are we saying that the farther away Aikido gets from O'Sensei, the more it suffers? Or that, "it's just a matter of time before somebody screws up the teachings and everyone is screwed forever and ever amen"? Maybe, if this was about a specific set of techniques, but it isn't. Its about an applied principle and a specific value system. IMO, the techniques seem very intuitive once you are grasping the principle. I feel more personally connected to O'Sensei, than I do to my own relatives from 200 years ago. Why? Because I feel that I understand what O'Sensei was heading towards, I understand and share much (of what I can understand) of his vision. I relate. I can't say the same about my own ancestors, I don't even know most of their names, much less whether or not I would have agreed with their philosophy on life and existence. So, regardless of pedigree... Very Connected.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration...

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

two things make me feel connected to him: His life long dedication to the pursuit of martial arts, and his ability to transcend the heritage of what he dedicated his life to, by applying the destructive knowledge of martial arts to constructive purposes.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

As suggested in some of the previous posts, the question should be divided into "Feel connected to the man and his philosophies", and "happy I can link myself to the linage cart".

I'm glad he founded the art -I like the art - I also like the missing components of aiki-juijitsu that modern aiki tends to lack. I'm glad, for lineage purposes,that I can trace what I've learned back to the founder. But that's only for the amusement of those who are more interested with lineage than with shu ha ri.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

Quote:

But that's only for the amusement of those who are more interested with lineage than with shu ha ri.

I'm a little confused...why does one have to be more interested in one than the other? Each has it's own import, and they can be viewed seperately or together. One does not exclude the other. Perhaps I am reading something in where there is nothing...
Best,
Ron

Ron Tisdale
-----------------------
"The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind."
St. Bonaventure (ca. 1221-1274)

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

In my opinion, one of the problems with Aikido as it is evolving is the loss of connection with it's Founder. People have only the sketchiest knowledge of what he was about. Aikikai Headquarters is not inclined to change that.

My own training under Saotome Sensei was quite different... O-Sensei was a daily part of my practice in that Saotome Sensei talked of him constantly. The lessons which O-Sensei personally provided my teacher were passed on to us, often in stories recounted after class over a beer or two. O-Sensei wasn't some remote figure, he is literally my Aikido Grandfather.

I had many years of training with Mary Heiny Sensei as well. O-Sensei's spirit as passed to her by Hikitsuchi Sensei was a daily part of our training. His memory was alive in the dojo. The connection has been kept vibrant by Hikitsuchi Sensei's student Anno Sensei with whom Mary and her top students have had a strong relationship.

I personally have little or no interest in an Aikido in which O-Sensei's dreams for the art play no important part. Saotome Sensei has been adamant, since day one, that we are part of a transmission from O-Sensei to him and from him to his deshi, of which I am one. For me, the art without that connection would be just another style of jiu jutsu and the most interesting one at that.

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

So many lines to read - no need to focus between them. Good aikido is good aikido.

IMHO

Shannon

Quote:

Ron Tisdale wrote:

I'm a little confused...why does one have to be more interested in one than the other? Each has it's own import, and they can be viewed separately or together. One does not exclude the other. Perhaps I am reading something in where there is nothing...
Best,
Ron

Re: Poll: How strong of a connection do you personally feel to Morihei Ueshiba?

Quote:

George S. Ledyard wrote:

In my opinion, one of the problems with Aikido as it is evolving is the loss of connection with it's Founder. People have only the sketchiest knowledge of what he was about. Aikikai Headquarters is not inclined to change that.

Hello George,

I am not sure whether I agree with you there. Certainly, knowledge of the Founder is very sketchy outside Japan. However, the present Doshu has republished his father's biography of the Founder (which is now being translated), has published a collection of the Founder's articles in the Aikido Shimbun. His father's autobiography is still in print, and the bi-annual Aikido Tankyu regularly contains articles about the Founder. I do not think you can blame the Aikikai for the fact that this is all in Japoanese and has not been translated.

The IAF will hold its 10th Congress in Tanabe, the birthplace of Morihei Ueshiba. We preferred Tokyo, but the City of Tanabe approached the IAF via the Aikikai Hombu, to ask us to consider holding the Congress as a kind of memorial to O Sensei. When I met Doshu recently, he stressed that a large international aikido gathering in the birthplace of the Founder would be a very good way of keeping alive the Founder's memory.

I myself never met the Founder, but I have read everything that he wrote and so, for me, this congress will be a kind of pilgrimage.